Little Girls Don't Need a VBAC Baby Doll

I used to think I was a pretty go-with-the-flow mom when it came to the kid and her toys. Video games? We've got 'em. Girly LEGO Friends? We love 'em. Breastfeeding baby doll? Sure, if she wants to! But I have officially met my limit.

Ladies and germs, behold the VBAC baby doll. Lift her dress, and you get to see a C-section scar across the tummy AND a baby popping out between her legs.

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I say "you" can do the lifting because the VBAC doll is not coming into my house if I can help it. Go ahead, call me a prude. But that's not it.

I'm well aware that little girls have the same vaginas as big girls. And my preference for other names for the lady parts aside, I'm also pretty aware that kids need to know how they work. When the doll's maker, MamAmor, first caught my eye, it was because parents were freaking out over their handmade birthing and breastfeeding dolls last year. I'm OK with a doll giving birth, folks.

What better way to explain the whole "how you got out of my tummy" thing to your kiddo? Having refused to let a camera anywhere near me when I was actually delivering her, it's not like I have any photographic evidence to show her the process. Besides, the less blood and, ahem, fecal matter, the less you freak kids out, right?

In that sense, I almost want to commend MamAmor for creating a doll with an actual C-sectioned tummy. Bravo for showing how some moms do it! But is this really about teaching a little kid where they came from? Wouldn't one C-sectioned mom to go with one vaginal birthing mom do the trick?

It's the VBAC itself I'm stuck on. Just take a look and see what it brings to mind:

Did that give you a visceral reaction? Not necessarily for its supposedly graphic nature, but for what it says about birth? After all, what does the VBAC represent to women? It's a highly politicized, some would say needlessly controversial procedure. It's a struggle between women's desires and doctors' insurance rates. It's complicated. Very, very complicated.

And a VBAC doll is just waltzing your kid into the debate. And for what? If they're young enough to be toting a baby doll, they're unlikely to understand the intricacies of the conundrum.

So what's the point here? It seems like it pushes just one agenda: hype the VBAC! Fortunately, 6-year-olds don't have to worry about that just yet. Lucy goosey mom I may be, but I'd like to give my kid a few more years of "childhood" before she has to wade into the health care debate. How about you?